Anonymous turns ire on Japan after anti-piracy law passes

It was only a matter of time – hacktivist group Anonymous has taken aim at the web sites of political parties and government departments in Japan in retaliation for a tough new anti-piracy bill passed last week.

The update to the Copyright Law was brought about after heavy lobbying by a content industry dismayed that illegal file sharing continues in Japan despite the uploading of pirated music and video already carrying a maximum jail sentence of ten years.

Now there is yet another legal deterrent in the country. Under the terms of the revised Copyright Law, illegal file sharing could land the perpetrator with a maximum of two years in prison and/or a fine of up to ¥2 million (£15,982). Anonymous announced OpJapan via a new Twitter account and a press release on its AnonPR site:

Japan, home to some of the greatest technological innovations throughout history has now decided to go down the path as well and cave into the pressures of the content industry to combat piracy and copyright infringement.

We at Anonymous believe strongly that this will result in scores of unnecessary prison sentences to numerous innocent citizens while doing little to solve the underlying problem of legitimate copyright infringement.

In classic Anonymous style, the group has launched its low orbit ION cannons at the web sites of various institutions it blames for passing the new law, including the Japanese Ministry of Finance, the Liberal Democratic Party and the Supreme Court of Japan.

At the time of writing only the Supreme Court had its site back up and running but Anonymous tweeted this morning that there will be more DDoS-ing today. ®